Boat Captain: BP Burning Sea Turtles Alive

Captain Mike Ellis of Venice, Louisana describes how BP is incinerating endangered sea turtles in its attempt to burn off spilled oil floating in the Gulf of Mexico near the wreck of the Deepwater Horizon. The turtles are getting trapped by boats towing huge flame-resistant booms.

Ellis says that BP hired him and his vessel to scoop up the turtles before they got caught in the oil boom dragnet, but that BP later pulled the plug on the turtle rescue program.

The turtles are protected by the Endangered Species Act which imposes fines of up to $50,000 per turtle killed. Ellis suspects that BP is just as happy to let the turtles burn because, that way, no one will ever know how many of these rare Kemp’s Ridley sea turtles they actually destroyed.

[Photo credit: flickr user qnr, licensed under Creative Commons.]